The Domino Effect of the Housing Crisis on Millenials in 3 Macro Trends in 2024
1. The Quarter Life Crisis Experience
The growing population of adults who will neither have a house nor a traditional family unit in their 30s upwards will be susceptible to the quarter life crisis. Similar to a midlife crisis, it is classified as an existential crisis which is a period of inner conflict during which a person is distraught over questions about identity, meaning, and purpose. The main difference is that a midlife crisis is more widely accepted, while a quarter-life crisis is often brushed off or belittled. That is changing. Many will have to come to terms with loneliness, lack of purpose and absence of spirituality.
This will create business opportunities for solutions that allow individuals to find their purpose through retreats, adult gap years and career transitions.
2. The Child-free movement will hit mainstream media
At the current trajectory, the UK’s natural population will start to decline in 2025, the ONS has predicted — at which point there will be more deaths than births. With a cost of living crisis compounded by the annual cost of childcare rising by £2,000 since 2010, more young adults will give up on parenthood completely. Right now, the UK has the second-highest childcare costs among leading economies in the world.
Governments will begin to panic over the child free movement tanking the already declining birth rate in the same way South Korea — who has the world’s worst birth rates — has. Unfortunately they have reacted too late with national measures encouraging more births such as tripling of monthly allowances and a reduction of mortgage interest rates for parents. And the same will happen with our western governments.
Inefficient policies and campaigns will be put in place to encourage raising kids to no avail. And in place of raising children, affluent couples will invest more money into alternative lifelong projects and big purchases they would’ve normally deferred to focus on child raising such as:
- Homesteads — Off the grid homes immune to the ongoing housing crisis
- Pets (UK pet insurance payouts topped £1 billion for the first time in 2022 already)
- Cosmetic surgeries — To preserve their youthfulness
- DIY home projects — Which will be less about space for a family and more about making space for their expensive hobbies — Britons already spend more than £20billion on home improvements every year.
- Adult gap years — Seen as a chance to press reset on their lives now they have more disposable income and freedom
These are all business opportunities to support this affluent class of citizens (DINKS) with money to spend (just not enough to start a family). In some circles this heavy spending in place of building a family unit can be referred to as Doom Spending.
3. Ultra Late Parenthood
As we continue to have children later, something will spike this trend even further upwards. Ultra Late Parenthood. The same way we’re growing tired of the things we once valued such as:
- A comfortable 9–5
- Social media
- Our smart devices smartphones
- Always being informed via 24/7 the news cycle
- Consumerism
We will discover more dissatisfaction with the lifestyle of an affluent adult with no responsibilities. This realisation late into our 30s/early 40s will lead to some changing their mind on raising children.
This will lead to more first-time childbirths in women’s 40s that will require investment and education around the risks of late births and solutions that increase fertility. Even though we’ve known First-time mothers are at high risk above the age of 35 back in 2013, another stark reminder will be needed. Across Canada, egg-freezing treatments grew by 93 in 2013 to 1,524 treatments, in 2022. But women are not fully informed on the risks, for example Kourtney Kardashian had to learn the hard way at the age of 38.
There will be opportunities in providing the necessary education, support and community for adults who decide to take this path.
The traditional family dream is coming to an end and a smart entrepreneur will be well positioned for the needs of that’ll accompany this new generation of middle aged adults.
